SEPA for corporate

SEPA Instant Credit Transfer for corporate

SEPA Instant Credit Transfers ensures that transferred funds are available in the recipient’s bank account within 10 seconds of the transaction. Nordea transfers the funds to or from your euro-denominated account immediately once the payment has arrived to Nordea or sent from Nordea as a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer. 

As a Nordea corporate customer, you can receive SEPA Instant Credit Transfers from all banks in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Currently, our corporate customers can send Instant Credit Transfers via corporate online channels and various APIs. 

Starting this October, we aim to expand SEPA instant payment sending capabilities to other corporate channels. These changes align with the EU's Instant Payments Regulation (IPR), which comes into effect in October 2025. 

Benefits to your company:

• Possibility to speed up payments when there is a need.
• Reception of payments from other banks 24/7, even on weekends and public holidays.
• Immediate reception of funds and improved liquidity management.
• The SEPA Instant Credit Transfer amount is transferred to your company’s account in full.
• Same pricing as in SEPA Credit Transfer.
• The banks offering the service follow the same common rules when handling SEPA Instant Credit Transfers.

Receiving SEPA Instant Credit Transfers

No action is needed by our customer to receive a payment from banks that are offering instant payments to their customers.

Sending SEPA Instant Credit Transfers

As a corporate customer of Nordea, you are already able to send SEPA Instant Credit Transfers to other European banks via our corporate online channel Nordea Corporate and various APIs. Additional channels will be opened during Q4 2025. 

The possibility to send multiple SEPA Instant Credit Transfers will be made available via a fully automated payment solution called ‘Multi-Payout Instant API’. We will provide more details closer to the go-live date in service descriptions and terms and conditions. 

You can already test out the Multi-Payout Instant API.Opens new window

Terms

Nordea's General Terms Governing Electronic Services for CompaniesOpens new window

Nordea’s general terms and conditions for euro-denominated payments transmitted within the Single Euro Payments

General agreement terms and conditions governing services with access codesOpens new window

Secure use of access codesOpens new window

Verification of Payee

The primary purpose of the Verification of Payee service is to check whether the recipient’s name matches the account holder’s name registered by the recipient’s bank. If they don’t match, the service will warn you that accepting the payment may mean that it ends up going to a unintended recipient. This process decreases the risk of fraud and human errors related to payments.

As of October 2025, the recipient will be checked automatically in all single payments made through Nordea’s digital services.

Verification of Payee answers

Recipient name matches account holder name
The recipient you have entered is the holder of the account.

Recipient name partially differs from the account holder name
The name you have entered is slightly different than the account holder’s name. This answer contains the account holder’s name.

Recipient name is not the same as the account holder name
The names are completely different or the account holder’s name differs significantly from the name you have entered. Check the recipient’s details, and if you suspect a scam, don’t confirm the payment.

We could not compare recipient name with account holder name
We were unable to check the account holder’s name for technical reasons or the recipient’s bank does not yet support the verification of payee because the account is located in a non-euro country, for example. You may also get this answer if the recipient's account has been created recently or if there have been no outgoing payments from the account.

You can confirm and make the payment after the recipient has been verified. If the recipient’s name is not the same as the account holder’s name, check the recipient’s details from the recipient before confirming the payment. If you suspect a scam, don’t confirm the payment. If necessary, remember to update the details of the recipient in your recipient list to ensure that the recipient’s and account holder’s names will match the next time. 

Verification of Payee in payment files

By the end of the year, we will introduce a self-service API for the verification of payee in payment files sent via the Web Services channel in the Corporate Payments Service. This API will support both single and multiple verification of payee requests. We will share more information closer to the launch date.

If you are a corporate customer and use the Corporate Payments Service, you can opt out from the Verification of Payee service before you send your payments for processing. It’s important to note, however, that opting out may increase the risk of payments ending up going to an unintended recipient. If this happens, your company is liable for making the payment to the wrong recipient.

SEPA Direct Debit Debtor

The SEPA direct debit for debtor consists of two services; CORE and B2B and can be used for euro-dominated payments throughout the SEPA. The CORE service is targeted for corporates and consumers, whereas the B2B service is targeted for corporates only. 

As a debtor you need to sign a service agreement with Nordea. This is done by contacting your own Nordea branch. 

Your benefits:

• An easy way to pay your recurring domestic and cross-border payments in time and with correct details.
• With one euro account you can order and pay for services from both domestic and foreign companies.
• Both the creditor and the debtor must comply with the same rules in all transactions.
• Possibility to have payments refunded.

Cancellation and refund

You can cancel a SEPA direct debit request before the due date in Netbank or by contacting Nordea Customer Service. You must cancel the request no later than by 12.00 on the banking day preceding the due date. 

You can request a refund of a payment up to eight (8) weeks from the debit date in Netbank or by contacting Nordea Customer Service. However, requesting a refund of a SEPA direct debit request does not release you from the payment obligation towards the creditor and you should contact the creditor about the payment directly.

Unauthorised debits from your account

If you suspect that a SEPA direct debit has been unjustifiably made (for example, a double payment, no mandate, incorrect amount), you have the right to request a refund within thirteen (13) months from the debit date. Please contact your cash management adviser at Nordea for further information.

Mandate

When a creditor offers you SEPA direct debit as a means of payment, you will receive a mandate to fill in. The signed mandate should be returned to the creditor. When using the SEPA Direct Debit B2B service a copy of the mandate should be sent to Nordea for registration.

The mandatory information required in a mandate has been specified on the European level by the European Payment CouncilOpens new window. By signing the mandate, you authorise the creditor to debit your payment account. The debit account you have specified in the mandate needs to be the same account you connect to Nordea's service agreement and you need to be authorised to use the account.

The creditor cannot verify whether the account number given in the mandate is correct or whether the party that has given the mandate has the right to use the account. You must agree on any changes to the mandate directly with your creditor.

The creditor is responsible for ensuring that the mandate is up to date. If you want to revoke the mandate or change the means of payment, you must contact the creditor directly and agree on the changes.

Terms and conditions

Please read the terms and conditions of the service before making the agreement and starting to use the service.

Service specific terms and conditions for SEPA Direct Debit Debtor Servicespdf - Opens new window 

General terms and conditions for corporate cash management servicespdf - Opens new window

Service terms and conditions for payment servicespdf - Opens new window

SEPA Direct Debit Creditor

The SEPA Direct Debit Creditor service enables you to debit the debtors’ EUR accounts in the SEPA area. You can use SEPA Direct Debit Creditor service to collect funds from consumers and corporate customers who have given their prior approval to it with a mandate. The SEPA Direct Debit Creditor service has two optional services: CORE and B2B.

Your benefits

The SEPA Direct Debit Creditor service provides you a simple and cost-efficient way to collect funds from SEPA-countries.  It enables liquidity centralisation, certainty of payment completion within a predetermined time cycle, and the possibility to optimise and streamline internal processes with easy reconciliation of payments received. It also enables to start investigation immediately if transaction has been rejected or refunded.

You can use SEPA Direct Debit Creditor Services as an alternative for SEPA Credit transfers when collecting euros in the SEPA area.

How to implement the service?

When considering to start using the SEPA Direct Debit service we recommend that you go through the following steps.

• Decide on which SDD type – CORE and/or B2B should be implemented.
• Evaluate your current systems identifying i.e. file formats and channels used today and assess needed changes.
• Evaluate your current collection process  and make a plan for your new collection routine with your sales people and your stakeholders.
• Design of the mandates deciding on the layout and the text, including creation of the mandate handling process.
• Make a plan for internal training.
• Apply for Creditor Identifier.

You will need to have a EUR account with Nordea in Finland and to sign an agreement with Nordea in order to start using the SEPA Direct Debit Creditor service.

More information on how to get started can be found in our checklistOpens new window  and in the service description and technical description. 

Mandate

The Mandate is designed by either you or the debtor. The content of the Mandate is standardized, but the text in the CORE and B2B mandates differ from each other. You must ensure that the Mandate contains both the mandatory legal wording and the mandatory information.

A SEPA Direct Debit collection always requires a Mandate which is your power of attorney from debtor.

With the Mandate the debtor authorizes you to collect a payment and to instruct the debtor’s (payer’s) bank to debit the collection. The mandate must to be signed by the debtor (payer) before the first collection and for the B2B service the debtor must forward a copy of the Mandate to their own bank for registration. The original mandate must be archived by you until the mandate has expired which is 36 months after the last initiated collection.

The Service Description for Mandate, including Mandate templates

Creditor Identifier

The Creditor Identifier (CI) represents a unique identifier of Creditor, meaning that each CI refers to one Creditor only. The CI enables Debtors and Debtor Banks to identify a Creditor independently from its account relationship with any Creditor Bank. The combination of the CI with the unique mandate reference forms the unique SDD mandate key. 

Nordea can assist you in obtaining your own CI.

Terms and conditions

Please read the terms and conditions of the service before making the agreement and starting to use the service.

Service specific terms and conditions for SEPA Direct Debit Collection ServicesOpens new window

General terms and conditions for corporate cash management servicesOpens new window

Service terms and conditions for payment services Opens new window